Author: admin

  • clean and well fed in Sardinia

    We stayed last night in the Lemon House B & B in Lotzorai which specialises in catering for climbers, walkers, bikers and kayakers. It is great to be clean and to have slept in a proper bed. We went out for a pizza last night with Peter and Anne from the B&B, with some Austrian climbers and with Francesco Muntoni, from Cardedu kayak, a local kayak guide. We are now having a relaxing breakfast with Peter,Anne and 2 English climbers before getting back on the water this afternoon.

    Sardinia is a really beautiful island. The coast is largely rugged with loads of small hidden bays and its usually easy to find lovely isolated beaches to camp on. we have slept on tiny sandy coves, cresents of gravel, in pine trees and on endless dunes. There are amazing stretches of cliffs with caves and arches. we have also camped on the outskirts of towns and villages so we can look around and go out for food. The coast isnt very developed except for tourist houses in a lot of the bigger bays. most of these are empty as the season hasnt started yet so its a bit odd to kayak past ghost towns! beachside cafes are mostly closed and its hard to find a restaurant open in the evenings, although you can usually get a Sardinian beer.

    The wind is very unpredictable and usually doesnt follow the forecast but it hasnt been so strong to make us turn back yet. we have tended to get off the water if it picks up to more than a force 3 or 4 against us as wed rather be on the land looking around and enjoying the place than working hard for little gain!! weve had it behind us a couple of days which has been very nice.

    ok, time to get organised and get paddling. the coast ahead of us today is one of the most beautiful stretches with towering cliffs, impressive sea stacks, hidden caves and sandy beaches…. or so weve been told!

  • sardinian rain!

    We’re sat in the tent as the rain continues to hammer down outside! So much for sardinian sun! Actually up until last night its been warm and mostly quite calm and beautiful.if you aren’t familiar with twitter then you may not realise that we are sending daily updates of our kayak journey around sardinia on twitter. You can read them above this blog in the blue box. Where it says”justine and barry are kayaking in xxxx, italy then click on the link and it will take you to a map of our route for the day. If we are still kayaking you can see our progress live! its still raining!

  • Skiing on the way to Sardinia

    A FISH OUT OF WATER? THE KAYAKS AT 1500METRES!
    It was unplanned and unexpected, but we somehow ended up skiing in the Swiss Alps today!!! We decided at the last minute to make a slight detour on our drive to Sardinia and called in on my father who is staying near Sion in Switzerland.

    We put on our kayaking thermals and begged, borrowed and stole (temporarily) some skiing equipment, and by 10am we were on the slopes at Montana resort. The sky was blue and it was really hot today so we could really appreciate the beauty of the mountains. Barry was nervous about taking to skies again – he mumbled something about not wanting to break his leg just before our kayaking trip! But after his first few turns he was grinning and making jokes so I knew he was enjoying it!! We had a great day skiing between towering rock buttresses. with Alpine Chuffs flying in formation above us. We stopped at a great restaurant in the sun and enjoyed soup and raclette. I was really pleasantly surprised at the amount of powder snow there was right besides the pistes. I had endless runs making fresh tracks, within 50 metres of the piste! Tomorrow we have about a 5 hour drive to Genoa where we will catch the overnight ferry to Sardinia. We hope to be paddling by Thursday afternoon!!

  • On the road to Sardinia


    PHOTO BY AXEL!

    We’re driving south – still in the UK right now and heading towards Dover for a 2pm ferry. We’ve decided to stop for a night or 2 in Sion, Switzerland because my dad is there, and I just realised how close it is to our planned route through France & Switzerland. The ferry to Porto Torres in Sardinia only goes every other day anyway, so instead of rushing for the Monday night sailing, we’ll get the Wednesday night sailing, arriving Thursday morning.

    On advice from Rene Seindal, we will drive 40km to the small town of Fertilia where there is a secure carpark where we can leave the van for 1 Euro a day. It’s also a pretty place to start, and means we have a section of coast with quite a few landing options to start with. The coastline anti-clockwise from Porto Torres is more cliffy with an often rough headland to paddle around and few landing options. That will be a nice end to our trip for us, instead!!

    In the meantime, I’ve been featured on a website called ‘Go! Girls Outdoors’, a website for anyone (including men) interested in the issues facing women in outdoor education and recreation. Click here to see my profile, or HERE to go to the site homepage